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The Real (Western Conference) Standings – 11/5/2010

Q OFF. GP W L WSO OTL PTS W% PRJ W%* PRJ* GB PS +/- PB
1 2 STL 10 6 1 1 2 16 0.800 131 0.700 115 0 6 4
2 5 DET 10 7 2 0 1 15 0.750 123 0.700 115 -0.5 5 5
3 1 LAK 12 7 3 2 0 18 0.750 123 0.750 123 -1 4 6
4 4 CBJ 12 7 4 1 0 16 0.667 109 0.667 109 -2 2 8
5 3 VAN 12 7 3 0 2 16 0.667 109 0.583 96 -2 2 8
6 7 DAL 11 5 4 2 0 14 0.636 104 0.636 104 -2 2 8
7 8 NAS 11 5 3 0 3 13 0.591 97 0.455 75 -2.5 1 9
8 10 MIN 11 5 4 0 2 12 0.545 89 0.455 75 -3 0 10
9 9 COL 12 5 5 1 1 13 0.542 89 0.500 82 -3.5 -1 11
10 12 SJS 11 5 5 0 1 11 0.500 82 0.455 75 -3.5 -1 11
11 13 PHX 11 4 4 0 3 11 0.500 82 0.364 60 -3.5 -1 11
12 11 CGY 12 5 6 1 0 12 0.500 82 0.500 82 -4 -2 12
13 6 CHI 15 6 7 1 1 15 0.500 82 0.467 77 -5.5 -5 15
14 14 ANA 13 5 7 0 1 11 0.423 69 0.385 63 -5.5 -5 15
15 15 EDM 10 3 5 0 2 8 0.400 66 0.300 49 -4 -2 12

  • Sorted by winning percentage (W%).
  • Only regulation wins and OT wins are counted as wins (W).
  • Shoot-out wins (WSO) are tallied separately. Why? Because they don’t count in the “total wins” tie-breaker, so we need to keep them out of the W column.
  • “OTL” = loss in OT or shoot-out (i.e. Bettman point).
  • “OFF.” = the official standings, as rendered by ESPN.
  • “Q” = Quisp standings.
  • “PRJ” = projected final point total.
  • “W%*” and “PRJ*” (note the asterisks) show the team’s win percentage an projected point total if you eliminate the “Bettman Point” and treat a loss as a loss.
  • “GB” = games back, i.e. baseball standings.
  • “PB” = points blown. Points-blown refers to the number of potential points a team has failed to earn.Lower number is better, like golf. This may seem like a needlessly confusing and pointless stat to keep track of, in which case, feel free to skip this column entirely. However, I find it’s a useful way to correct for disparities in games-played. Think of points-blown as a kind of “hidden reason for optimism (or pessimism)” quantifier.
  • “PS +/-“ = points blown, relative to the 8th seed. In other words, how far above or below the post-season (“P.S.”) cut-off a team is.
  • In the first two columns (Q rank and ESPN rank), green means 1-4 seed, yellow is 5-8, orange is 9-12, red is 13-15.
  • For the columns starting with “team name” and ending with “PRJ”, Green indicates a projected finish 100 points or above (certain to qualify for playoffs). Yellow is 94-99 projected points (probable for playoffs), orange is 86-93 (projected to fall short), red is below 85 (falling short of falling short).
  • For the No Bettman Point columns (with asterisks), the thresholds have been shifted downward slightly, to reflect the fact that teams across the board earn between 2-14 fewer points.
  • For the last three columns, the colors translate to great, good, bad and screwed.
  • Talking Points